


Besting a Blade

by Team_Two_Cats



Series: Suikovember 2020 [8]
Category: Suikoden Series (Video Games), Suikoden Tierkreis
Genre: Angst, M/M, Rivals to Lovers, Training, duels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27697262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Two_Cats/pseuds/Team_Two_Cats
Summary: Suikovember 2020 Day 24 Prompt: ClashYovel surprises himself (and Roberto) by actually besting the Blade of Night's Veil in a training battle. Not that Roberto is happy about it. At all. But the confrontation it provokes afterward might be just the thing to push both young men out of their comfort zones for them to see what's right in front of them.
Relationships: Roberto/Yovel (Suikoden)
Series: Suikovember 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019115
Kudos: 1





	Besting a Blade

“All right greenheads, pay attention,” Roberto says. “I will teach you the basics of ninja combat.”

Yovel frowns, not really liking the sound of that. But he squares himself all the same. Though his sister continually tells him that he needs to practice more, practice more, that he’ll never be a great warrior like so many of the other men of the company, Yovel feels he’s been improving a lot. He grounds himself and holds his sword steady and feels the heft of his shield.

“You’ve got to be fast and know when to…strike unexpectedly!”

Roberto moves like lightning, twin blades flashing. A month ago and Yovel would be on the ground, disarmed. But he can see Roberto’s approach now, has learned the young man’s rhythms. Yovel times it just right, and swings, catching both of Roberto’s blades and knocking them aside, then, bracing his shield with his shoulder, he pushes forward.

Caught off balance, the shield hits Roberto in the side of the face all the way down his chest. And the ninja, however fast and graceful, falls sprawling to the ground.

The crowd of students all hush and Yovel hisses. Secretly he expected Roberto to dodge at the last moment. He’s seen Chrodechild manage such dodges, and Meruvis as well. But instead he watches as Roberto shakes his head, and then looks up at Yovel, face reddening.

“Uh…lucky move, right?” Yovel says.

Roberto doesn’t hesitate. He surges from his feet, blades once more flashing in the afternoon sun. Yovel dances back, keeps his shield between himself and Roberto, takes blow after blow. Fear runs up his spine in chilling bursts. But even as Roberto’s blows are coming stronger now, there’s less finesse to them. Less care. And Yovel can see…

He slashes forward, makes Roberto falter a step, and in the time the ninja shifts his balance, Yovel catches his other blade between his own sword and shield and twists, Roberto shouting as he loses his grip on the hilt. Yovel quickly kicks the blade away and recenters himself as Robert retreats two steps and snarls at him.

“Uh…another lucky move?” It’s all he can think to say. He wants to drop his weapons now, declare the contest over, but he can tell that Roberto has no intention of conceding the clash. So he takes a deep breath and waits.

Roberto doesn’t make him wait long. Even with just one blade, the ninja is formidable. Perhaps even more so, as Yovel suspects that the only reason the young man was using two as because that’s how Sieg tends to fight. With one blade he’s even faster, and Yovel is sweating under his mask. He grimaces as Roberto manages to hit his shield shoulder, but he keeps it up, retreats under the onslaught.

Roberto has been teaching for hours, though, and had three different fights before this one. Despite his passion and his skill, Yovel sees the strain in the way the intensity of his attack flags quickly. Yovel waits until Roberto swings too hard, overextending, leaving himself open. Yovel springs forward, once again attacking not with his sword but his shield. Roberto yelps as the shield bashes his shoulder and dominant arm, and his sword drops to the ground as he’s pushed back. Yovel doesn’t let up this time, and instead of giving Roberto a chance to regain his feet he pushes again, crashing into him and driving him to the ground.

A moment later he puts his sword to Roberto’s throat. “Yield,” he says, his voice shaking. And for a moment he’s afraid that Roberto won’t.

The ninja’s eyes shine with barely restrained tears, and the anger in them is as intense as the shame. But finally Roberto looks away. “I yield,” he says.

Yovel finally exhales, and drops his guard. He sheathes his sword and extends his hand toward Roberto.

Instead of taking it, though, the ninja knocks it away and runs off. The surrounding crowd erupts in cheers. Yovel, under his mask, doesn’t know whether to blush or cry.

\---

Yovel sits on the ledge of the roof, his mask up, his legs dangling over, and winces as he checks his wound. Zahra did a great job treating it, but it’s still tight, and it hurts when he pokes the bandages. Which, he supposes, means he shouldn’t poke it.

He pokes it again.

“Uh…Yovel?” comes a voice from the stairs back into the castle.

Yovel turns to see Roberto standing there, one arm crossed over his chest, hand squeezing the opposite shoulder. He’s still red in the face but the anger seems gone. This might actually be…embarrassment?

“Oh, hi Roberto,” Yovel says.

“I…wanted to apologize. For earlier. I had no right to be angry. You, uh, beat me. Fair and square. And I reacted as a child. I’m sorry.”

Yovel shrugs. “I mean, you had already been exerting yourself for a while before facing me. And also, like, if it had been anyone else I probably wouldn’t have done so well, because I’ve been watching you so much recently. Watching you fight, I mean.” Yovel flushes a bit himself and is tempted to pull back down his mask.

“Anyway,” he says, “I just got lucky. Nothing to apologize for. I’m sure my sister will take the first opportunity to point out how I’m not progressing fast enough.”

Roberto rolls his eyes. “Your sister seems like a real piece of work.”

Yovel shrugs again. “You, uh, you can sit, if you want,” he says, and motions to the ledge.

Roberto seems to consider it for a long moment and Yovel is afraid he’s been too forward and stares out at the forest, at the world, anywhere that’s not back toward the cute ninja behind him. He’s almost surprised when he glances over and Roberto’s already sitting beside him. Though he shouldn’t. Be surprised, that is, because of course, cute ninjas are still…ninjas.

“Anyway, you’re definitely not progressing slowly,” Roberto says. “You’re the best fighter of the people I’ve been training. I’m afraid that I really don’t have much more to teach you. I mean, you could ask Meruvis if he’d—”

“You don’t want to train with me any more?” Yovel asks. He feels his stomach sink into the rock of the roof.

Robert rubs the back of his neck. “I mean, I just don’t know if I can teach you anything more.”

“So what, we’re all just your charity work?” Yovel says, angrier than he expected to be.

“What? No!”

“Then what do you get out of the training? Why do it at all if there’s no point in training with people who you might be better than?”

“Well, I get to keep my skills sharp, and get to work to improve the fighting of the company.”

“And that only works if the people you’re training with are worse than you?”

“I don’t get why you’d being so upset about—”

Yovel reaches up and slides his mask down, then turns to leave. Without thinking, though, he pushes up with his injured arm, and he hisses as it gives out. Instead of standing, he pitches to the side, nearly falling—

Roberto catches him and pulls him back and Yovel cries out as the ninja roughly grabs his injured shoulder.

“Careful!” Yovel says, and pulls away, stumbling back from the edge. “Haven’t you done enough?”

Roberto looks at him, confusion and hurt warring on his face. “What do you—”

Yovel pulls aside his shoulder wrap, revealing the bandage.

“How did—”

“From your sword!” Yovel snaps. “Don’t you even remember? That thing you came here to apologize for?”

Roberto’s face goes a deeper red, and he looks at the ground. “Oh. I-I’m really sorry about that. I got carried away.”

“You did,” Yovel says. “But sometimes that’s what training is about. About pushing boundaries. About _improving_. And yeah, I’ve been getting better, with your help. And I’ll continue to get better. Not because you know so much more than me, not because you’ll always be a better fighter. But because we can help each other. We can push each other. Not as a teacher and his student, but as peers.”

Roberto looks up at that. “But—”

“But what?” Yovel demands. For once he’s tired of everyone seeing him as a pushover. He managed to finally beat Roberto in a fight, and now Roberto wants to take his ball and go home? No. He gets right up into Roberto’s face.

“But why would you want to be peers…with me?”

Yovel stops. There’s something so…raw in Roberto’s face. Yovel steps back and lifts up his mask, and it’s like in that act he lets out all his anger, which he’s no good at keeping in anyway. He sighs and shakes his head.

“Well, you’re cute, for one,” Yovel says, and he’s sure both of them are as red as a tomato. “A-and, I mean, you’re still an amazing fighter. I _want_ to train with you. We can even, like, work on a special attack! Together!”

Roberto squints, then nods. “Yeah,” he says. “That sounds nice. It would mean putting in some time without the others, though.”

“Sounds great,” Yovel says, and steps closer to Roberto. “Sounds perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, two members of the Pretty Boy Attack. I do think they go well together, even if Roberto is kinda dense about things and hyper competitive. Yovel has some surprising strength, though, and I think they make a good couple. So yeah, just a small spark here that might grow into something bigger and hotter! :D


End file.
